Archive for April, 2012|Monthly archive page

A few weeks ago, Alvin and I put ourselves on a detox diet. While on the diet, I practiced a vegan diet and didn’t allow myself to eat soy, sugar, gluten or processed foods. The detox diet opened my eyes to the fact that I did not eat as healthy as I thought. I ate a lot of short cuts because they were easier to fit into my life. For example, I used can beans instead of boiling them myself. We eat a lot of rice but it wasn’t brown; I still don’t like brown rice. I use more frozen vegetables then fresh and I really didn’t eat fruit. I thought I was ok because I drank a lot of water and didn’t eat a lot of chips, cookies or junk food.

So here we were getting rid of the garbage in our system and letting our kids eat whatever. It just didn’t make sense to me that we would so much effort into saving ourselves and so little in preserving our kids. Previously, I had cut down on the hot dogs and happy meals but it wasn’t enough. I then realized that I was serving dish without having any vegetables on it. What was I doing?

So halfway through my detox, I had an epiphany. Unless I am truly running short on time, these kids are gonna eat vegetables. My goal is to transition my children from processed foods to produce. I have taken a few small steps to which seem to be working.

I include fresh fruit in their midday snack. The 9yr old loves orange wedges and the 5yr old loves bananas.

Every sandwich includes lettuce. Sometimes I have Bibb and other days I may have Iceburg but they have eaten them all…or at least I think so.

I include applesauce or fruit cocktail in their lunch but I don’t think that counts because it’s still processed and I buy it in light syrup but it does counts as a s serving of fruit.

At dinner they eat either a salad or a vegetable they like which include sweet peas, corn on the cob and broccoli.

It is still a challenge to get the veggies down but it is working. The detox diet is done and has left me with an awareness of the food the whole family is eating. So I guess I didn’t just detox my liver, I detoxed my mind and have become aware. I have found the loopholes in my diet that have been the culprits preventing me from losing the weight. Like my children, it is not my first instinct to reach for an apple instead of a cookie but at least it’s an option. Eating healthy has been on my mind but now it’s apart of me and I have gone from processed to produce.